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Two men sentenced to prison as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, two former Republican lawmakers, and four security contractors convicted in the massacre of 14 Iraqi civilians were among 15 people granted full pardons by U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Those pardoned by Trump are:
- Duncan Hunter (pictured), a former Republican congressman from California who pleaded guilty last year to misusing campaign funds. He was sentenced to 11 months’ imprisonment set to begin in January 2021. - Chris Collins, a former Republican representative from New York who pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to commit securities fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Collins, who had been the first sitting member of Congress to endorse Trump’s candidacy in 2016, is serving his 26-month sentence.
- Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard, security contractors for the former security firm Blackwater who were convicted for their roles in the 2007 massacre of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic stop.
- George Papadopoulos, 33, a former Trump campaign aide who pleaded guilty as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to FBI agents about the timing and significance of his contacts with people who claimed to have ties to top Russian officials.
- Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of Russian billionaire German Khan. Van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $20,000 for lying to U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about contacts with an official in Trump’s 2016 campaign.
- Alfonso Costa, a dentist from Pittsburgh who had pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud related to false billing.
- Alfred Lee Crum, 89, who had pleaded guilty in 1952 to helping a relative illegally distill moonshine in Oklahoma. - Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, former Border Patrol agents who were convicted of assault after Ramos in 2005 shot a suspect trafficking marijuana who subsequently fled across the border. Their prison sentences were commuted by former President George W. Bush.
- Weldon Angelos, who had been sentenced in 2002 to 55 years’ imprisonment for selling marijuana and carrying a handgun in the course of dealing and was released by judicial order after serving 13 years in prison.
- Philip Lyman, who was a county commissioner in Utah when he was prosecuted for protesting the Bureau of Land Management’s closure of the Recapture Canyon to ATV riders. - Otis Gordon, who had been convicted of possession with intent to distribute.